Head of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) Gaber Desouqy and a number of company officials visited the South Helwan power plant project, with a capacity of 19,500 MW on Wednesday.
Sources at the Ministry of Electricity said that 65% of the project was completed and that the running tests will begin in late November. The project is being established by 22 local and international companies.
He added that the plant consists of three steam turbines with a capacity of 650 MW each, in addition to three boilers. Both turbines and boilers use natural gas as major fuel and Mazut as alternative fuel. The plant will be linked to the national electricity grid with a capacity of 500 kV.
The total cost of the plant is EGP 11.7bn and a number of international financing institutions are participating in it: the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and the OPEC Fund for International Development, in addition to the Upper Egypt Electricity Production Company.
The plant is being carried out by different companies. Nineteen tenders for 19 operations were launched in order to give the chance to as many companies as possible to compete, and to consequently offer the best prices.
The South Helwan plant comes among the projects the sector is working hard to execute within its current five-year plan in 2012-2017 to support the national electricity grid in order to provide the needed capacities and secure electricity for all purposes.
